Iran has protested to the United Nations over an Israeli cabinet minister's threat that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could be kidnapped and brought to the International Court of Justice in the Hague. Pensioners Affairs Minister Rafi Eitan made the comment in an interview with the German Der Spiegel newspaper. Iran's ambassador to the U.N. also objected to Defense Minister Ehud Barak's previous threat to use military force to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power.

Ambassador Mohammad Khazee wrote the U.N., "While the Islamic Republic of Iran has never threatened other nations, it would not hesitate to act in self-defense to respond to any attack against the Iranian nation and to take appropriate defensive measures to protect itself, its people and its officials."  

The Islamic Republic of Iran has never threatened other nations.

He added that Israel's threats violate international law and "the basic values of the civilized world."

Ahmadinejad, who as Iranian leader has in fact threatened other nations-stating several times that Israel should be "wiped of the face of the map"-has maintained that Iran would user nuclear power only for peaceful purposes.

Eitan, a former Mossad senior agent who led the 1960 operation to capture Adolf Eichmann and secretly bring him to Israel, has suggested to Der Spiegel that kidnapping Ahmadinejad could be justified in order to try him for his anti-Israeli threats.

"It could very well be that a leader such as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suddenly finds himself before the International Criminal Court in The Hague,'' Eitan stated. " A man like Ahmadinejad who threatens genocide has to be brought for trial in The Hague. And all options are open in terms of how he should be brought."